The subject invention relates in general to mechanisms that are used to integrally affix to land-based motor vehicles rail wheels to enable the motor vehicle to be driven over railroad tracks, such mechanisms required to be affixed so that the railwheels do not interfere with the rubber, land-based tires or their operation.
In this regard, it is to be noted that the deployment of rail wheels on a motor vehicle requires constant attention to the rail wheel positioning and alignment on the rails. In most instances, the rail wheels have a substantial tendency to wear on the outside portion of the wheel flange, as well as on other areas. The wearing process is caused in part by the outward forces constantly imposed on the outer surfaces of the rail wheel flanges as they ride on the rails. As this wear progresses significantly, the rail wheels become weakened, and thus become structurally unsound for their intended usage. A second problem that is encountered as this wear process develops is that the rail wheels become misaligned or spread apart relative to the opposing wheel so as to eventually cause some significant difficulty in maintaining the vehicle on the track.
In the prior and existing mechanical art that is employed as a maintenance procedure to alleviate the foregoing discussed wear problem, there are limited approaches to overcome the difficulty. One of the primary methods used involved the removal of each rail wheel on the axle, as a separate operation, whenever such spacing or alignment problems evolved, and readjusting and refitting the individual wheel back on the axle to the desired and correct spacing dimension. This process of removing each wheel individually is not only cumbersome, but is expensive and a relatively difficult procedure. Other methods utilized for this problem have proven to be equally difficult and cumbersome.
In view of the relative expense and difficulty with this rail wheel adjustment process, the subject invention has been conceived as an apparatus and process as an improvement to facilitate, at minimal expense and labor, the process of adjusting the intermediate distance between such rail wheels. The following objects of the subject invention are addressed accordingly.